BBC Wales hasn't made enough progress on diversity, says director

BBC Wales has moved into a new building in Cardiff city centre

The BBC has not made "enough progress" towards improving diversity among its workforce in Wales, the director of BBC Cymru Wales has said.

Rhodri Talfan Davies said there had been "plenty of good initiatives".

But he said the proportion of female, disabled and ethnically diverse staff remained below where it should be.

The BBC set itself a target that 20% of the workforce will be from black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds from next month.

The workforce target for women is 50%.

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Mr Davies said the proportion of those from a Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) background at BBC Wales currently stands at just under 4%.

He told the Welsh Parliament culture committee the proportion of women was at around 44%.

"I think particularly on the BAME number, we will need to see progress on that," the director said.

"We're obviously going through a national census at the moment, that will throw up new data.

"We're broadly in line with the 2011 census at the moment in terms of ethnicity, but we need to push on.

"[We've had] plenty of good initiatives, but not enough progress."

Rhodri Talfan Davies said there had not been enough progress on the issue

The BBC's director general, Tim Davie, who was also giving evidence, said there was an acknowledgement that some parts of the BBC would fare better in trying to meet diversity targets than others.

"The truth about the facts are, we have made progress, but moved too slowly.

"We haven't been short of good intent, we haven't been short of initiatives, but at UK level, we have moved too slowly.

"You can't do it overnight. It's a fairly rigorous process. I think it's not just about the right thing to do. We need an organisation that is of the people, for the people, rather than for a certain type."

Currently just under 4% of BBC Wales staff are from a BAME background, Mr Davies said

Mr Davies, who has also recently been made the BBC's Director of Nations in addition to his BBC Wales role, said he was confident that BBC Wales would fare better with the new targets for those from less well-off backgrounds.

"I think we will see a different mix," he said.

"Realistically, in order to hit that 20%, we would expect to see growth in terms of ethnicity and disability.

"I suspect we will see disproportionate growth in terms of socio-economic diversity in Wales, given what we know about the mix of the country".

Mr Davies also confirmed that a £100m fund announced by the BBC to improve diversity on screen last year would be reflected across its divisions in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

"My expectation is that Nations television will also deliver a value of around £15m of programming specifically hitting a gold standard in terms of diverse representation over the next three years", said Mr Davies.